TV cop TJ Hooker gets big-screen patrol

The 1980s TV series which starred William Shatner as a no-nonsense policeman and Heather Locklear as his protege is to be reinvented as an action comedy movie

On the beat … the cast of the TJ Hooker TV series: (clockwise from left) Heather Locklear, James Darren, Adrian Zmed, William Shatner. Photograph: Columbia/Everett/Rex Features
/Columbia/Everett/Rex Features

Michael Mann's Miami Vice found its way to the big screen in 2006, the Transformers are currently riding high in global cineplexes, and an A-Team movie is reportedly on the way. Television series from the 1980s have proved an apparently inexhaustible seam of source material for Hollywood producers. And now TJ Hooker, the series about a veteran no-nonsense LA police sergeant which ran for five seasons between 1982 and 1986, looks set to be the latest to get the movie treatment, Variety reports.

Starring William Shatner of Star Trek fame in the title role, the Aaron Spelling-produced Hooker was an instant hit on both sides of the Atlantic. The cast also included Heather Locklear, whose role as rookie detective Stacy Sheridan was a far cry from the blonde vixen parts that made her name: Sammi Jo in Dynasty and Amanda Woodward in Melrose Place, both also from the Aaron Spelling hit factory.

The film, which so far has no cast attached, looks set to be an action comedy. "The series was the poster child for cop TV shows in the 1980s with great stunts, so we think there's a fun movie to be made from it," said producer Ryan Heppe.

Chuck Russell, director of 1994 Jim Carrey vehicle The Mask and The Mummy spin-off The Scorpion King, is in talks to take the reins on the project, while Brent Maddock and SS Wilson (the pair behind a new remake of Short Circuit due in cinemas next year) will write the screenplay.

Meanwhile, the A-Team movie looks set to star The Hangover's Bradley Cooper as Face, with Liam Neeson in talks to play Colonel Hannibal Smith. Narc and Smokin' Aces' Joe Carnahan directs. Next week, Chips: The Movie. Or possibly a big-screen outing for Cagney and Lacey. You heard it here first.